"The Money Is NOT In The List!" - The Art of Traffic Generation

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by stanleytang, Jun 2, 2007.

  1. #1
    Hello DP members,

    I just wanted to take a snippet from my upcoming
    product "The Viral Marketing Blackbook" and share a
    little inspiration with you.

    The Art Of Traffic Generation

    As you may know, traffic is the lifeblood to success
    for all online businesses. Making money on the internet
    is all about traffic monetization.

    You probably heard this phrase many many times before:
    "The money is in the list".

    WRONG!

    And nope, it is also not "the money is what you do with
    the list". The list is just part of the big picture in
    internet marketing. Building a list is just one way of
    generating and monetizing your traffic.

    But in the end, everything comes down to traffic.
    Forget what the so-called "gurus" have taught you over
    the years. Most of them probably haven’t even made a
    single cent outside the internet marketing niche, and
    only know how to make money by teaching others how to
    make money.

    The true remarkable stars of internet marketing are
    people like Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of
    Google), Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith (founders of
    Hotmail), David Filo and Jerry Yang (founders of Yahoo),
    Pierre Omidyar (founder of eBay), Jeff Bezos (founder
    of Amazon) etc.

    I don't think any of these made their billions using
    an opt-in list. They made their billions by driving
    massive traffic to their website and monetizing them.
    List building is just one way of monetizing
    your traffic.

    The foundation of all internet businesses is traffic.
    No matter how good your website looks, if you don’t
    have any traffic, you won’t make any money. Using a
    red headline in your sales letter isn’t going to help
    much if you are only receiving 10 impressions a day.

    Stop wasting your time and money, trying to find the
    "secret" formula to increasing your Adsense revenue
    or your subscriber list. Concentrate on building the
    quality targeted traffic first, before working on your
    conversion rates.

    Many people think conversion is the way to get started.
    Yes, conversion is essential, but you need the traffic
    to work on your conversion. Even if your conversion
    stinks, you can still make tons of money if you have a
    large volume of traffic.

    That is why you should focus on building the traffic
    first, so that you are in a much better position to test
    the conversions.

    Bottom line: the person with the most traffic wins almost
    every time.


    This brings me to the basic formula to online success:

    Traffic + Conversion = Profits

    It is as simple as that. Get massive amounts of traffic,
    and convert as much of it as you can. If you can achieve
    that, then you will become rich online. This is the exact
    same fundamental formula ALL online businesses use,
    including Google and Yahoo. EVERY SINGLE marketing tactic
    in the entire universe fall under either the "traffic"
    or "conversion" category.

    (If you can think of one which does not fall into one
    of the two categories, please tell me, because I want
    to know :))

    Do you think Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube
    because they had good advert optimization or good web
    design? NO. They bought YouTube because it had a wide
    audience and massive traffic, even though it had no
    revenue. Google paid for the traffic that they hope
    will eventually monetize and convert to create profit.

    So by being able to generate traffic, and constantly
    testing and tracking to see what converts, you will
    make money.

    Fundamentals of Traffic Generation

    According to internet guru John Reese (of income.com),
    there are only three legal ways of generating traffic
    in the entire universe (with the fourth being stealing,
    which is using spywares etc).

    1. Buy Traffic

    You can buy traffic. This includes things like PPC
    advertising, banner advertising, ezine advertising,
    co-registration etc.

    2. Create Traffic

    You can create traffic. This may involve things like
    article marketing, press releases, search engine
    optimization, traffic from your list, social networking,
    social bookmarking etc.

    3. Borrow Traffic

    Finally, you can borrow traffic. There is no better way
    than to leverage other people’s traffic. This may include
    things like placing ads on other people’s ezine or
    newletter, joint ventures etc.

    Viral Traffic

    Traffic from viral marketing goes somewhere in between
    creating traffic and borrowing traffic. This is probably
    the most powerful way of generating massive amounts of
    free traffic.

    In fact, many successful businesses you see today
    (both online and offline) succeeded by using the power
    of viral marketing, or word-of-mouth advertising as
    its called offline. And of course, most importantly,
    viral traffic is free.

    The Fatal Traffic Mistake

    Before I move on, let me start off by emphasizing
    something vitally important to you. This is probably the
    number one fatal traffic mistake almost everyone makes
    when trying to get traffic to their website. This mistake
    practically guarantees that they are wasting their time
    and money on ineffective advertising.

    And what is this fatal mistake?

    They do not track every traffic source individually.

    Tracking every single traffic source individually,
    including individual keywords, is the most important
    thing if you want to get profitable traffic. And if
    you are not doing that, then you won’t be able to know
    which traffic sources are making you money, and which
    are not, meaning that you won’t be able to improve and
    increase your targeted traffic.

    Are you confused?

    Here is an example. Let’s say I ran a pay-per-click
    campaign, placed some banner ads and bought some ezine
    ads to drive traffic to my website, but I forgot to
    track my traffic individually. At the end of the day,
    I look at my results and see that I have spent $500
    on advertising and earned $1000 in revenue. I made a
    stunning $500 profit! I should be happy right?

    Absolutely not.

    Why? Because there is a good chance that probably $400 of
    the $500 spent on advertising was useless, and probably
    all the revenue came from the $100 advertising. If I
    was tracking the traffic source individually, and was
    able to pin-point where the traffic were coming from,
    I could have saved up to $400 and have made a profit of
    $900 rather than $500.

    And that is the number one fatal mistake almost everyone
    makes.

    As John Reese said, "testing and tracking is where
    95% of the profit is made"
    , because it allows you to
    differentiate the winners from the losers.

    ---

    To your success,

    Stanley Tang
     
    stanleytang, Jun 2, 2007 IP
    Nestrer, gkgk11, iul and 1 other person like this.
  2. 101freehost

    101freehost Peon

    Messages:
    112
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #2
    great work, thank you.
     
    101freehost, Jun 2, 2007 IP
  3. ez-online-money.com

    ez-online-money.com Peon

    Messages:
    690
    Likes Received:
    10
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #3
    Very intriguing work you have going there!
     
    ez-online-money.com, Jun 2, 2007 IP
  4. stanleytang

    stanleytang Guest

    Messages:
    278
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #4
    Thanks everybody... I hope it helped you guys!

    -Stanley Tang
     
    stanleytang, Jun 2, 2007 IP
  5. WM7

    WM7 Peon

    Messages:
    778
    Likes Received:
    112
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #5
    Great work.This must be a sticy.
     
    WM7, Jun 2, 2007 IP
  6. tradeya

    tradeya Notable Member

    Messages:
    5,729
    Likes Received:
    275
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    230
    #6
    nice job on explaining. but i dont know why i think something still missing and i feel empty after read this... (should be my own problem) anyway. good works.
     
    tradeya, Jun 3, 2007 IP
  7. stanleytang

    stanleytang Guest

    Messages:
    278
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #7
    That's because it's just a 'snippet' from my upcoming book... lol
     
    stanleytang, Jun 3, 2007 IP
  8. guppyman

    guppyman Banned

    Messages:
    720
    Likes Received:
    9
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #8
    Wow...

    Thanks for the great post.
     
    guppyman, Jun 3, 2007 IP
  9. stanleytang

    stanleytang Guest

    Messages:
    278
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #9
    Thanks guppyman.

    :)
     
    stanleytang, Jun 3, 2007 IP
  10. Lastbutnotleast

    Lastbutnotleast Peon

    Messages:
    2,612
    Likes Received:
    105
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #10
    BUT you ARE building a list !

    Good marketing & self promotion ;)
     
    Lastbutnotleast, Jun 3, 2007 IP
  11. steveceleste

    steveceleste Peon

    Messages:
    160
    Likes Received:
    60
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #11
    This is a great post, but I'm going to have to disagree

    The money IS MOST DEFINITELY IN THE LIST

    You mentioned,

    The true remarkable stars of internet marketing are
    people like Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of
    Google), Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith (founders of
    Hotmail), David Filo and Jerry Yang (founders of Yahoo),
    Pierre Omidyar (founder of eBay), Jeff Bezos (founder
    of Amazon) etc.

    Well, I can agree with you on Page and Brin, but Hotmail, Yahoo, Ebay, Amazon, they all amde their millions of their lists....

    A list doesn't have to be something that you sign up on to for a free product, it can very much be a buyer list or a subscription.

    Hotmail and Yahoo, built their lists from their FREE EMAIL PROGRAM, just like giving away free products or a guide, they gave away an email address.

    Within this email address unknowingly you were marketed products and advertisments, etc. That is where they started to make money.

    They pulled you in from their program, and told you about nwer things they were doing, such as Yahoo Shopping.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Ebay, did the same thing, pulled in people from their free program first, but then marketed the whole idea of their program, and put a cost on it.

    People liked doing it, thus they made money.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    What is google doing now? They have a list of emails, can market to them, all their products, newsletters, etc...

    You see the money really is in the list, traffic is just a factor to building this list, but really if tou want to make millions you need a list.


    Why is Mysapce, facebook, and youtube selling for billions...

    BECAUSE OF THE LIST OF PEOPLE CONNECTED.
     
    steveceleste, Jun 3, 2007 IP
  12. Lastbutnotleast

    Lastbutnotleast Peon

    Messages:
    2,612
    Likes Received:
    105
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #12
    I do agree with you, steveceleste ;)
     
    Lastbutnotleast, Jun 3, 2007 IP
  13. SergeF

    SergeF Peon

    Messages:
    294
    Likes Received:
    7
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #13
    so do i...
     
    SergeF, Jun 3, 2007 IP
  14. stanleytang

    stanleytang Guest

    Messages:
    278
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #14
    Well, the money is not in THE list. If you look deeper than just the surface, you'll see that the list is not the panacea. It's the traffic that builds the list :)

     
    stanleytang, Jun 4, 2007 IP
  15. stanleytang

    stanleytang Guest

    Messages:
    278
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #15
    :( ....lol
     
    stanleytang, Jun 5, 2007 IP
  16. populartemplate

    populartemplate Banned

    Messages:
    922
    Likes Received:
    97
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #16
    Nice article, well job done. Rep added.
     
    populartemplate, Jun 5, 2007 IP
  17. tbtoyl

    tbtoyl Active Member

    Messages:
    565
    Likes Received:
    7
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    58
    #17
    Thanks. Nice job!
     
    tbtoyl, Jun 5, 2007 IP
  18. wisepoyet

    wisepoyet Peon

    Messages:
    12
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #18
    Great Article and another good debate. "youtube" certainly backs up your comments.

    But a good list is still a good pension !
     
    wisepoyet, Jun 6, 2007 IP
  19. InstantPros

    InstantPros Peon

    Messages:
    116
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #19
    Very informative and actually quite accurate, traffic means diddly if your sole goal is revenue. You must pinpoint the highest conversion rate possible with certain ad campaigns. Trial and error... you wont hit the nail on the head the first time out. The only downside is testing takes money however you can get by spending less than 100 bucks a run.
     
    InstantPros, Jun 6, 2007 IP
  20. awiekupo

    awiekupo Peon

    Messages:
    975
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #20
    Great post and informative debate over here. Then again, how do you define a good conversion rate? What is the acceptable figure for lowest and highest conversion rate?
     
    awiekupo, Jun 6, 2007 IP